Mavic Pro Battery Mod

[MacIak]

Hey experts,

I had a couple factory batteries separated from their housing from the tests in the factory battery mod thread and decided to make them standalone external batteries with a small soldering exercise. They are significantly lighter than the multistar LiHV 4000 units and I was curious how they would perform in a hover test. I used a factory battery as usual and the two external's using the "ear ring" power supply mod.

Factory battery pre flight:
4.35

External batteries pre flight:
4.30
4.30

Mavic Go4 Telemetry:
Minutes/RPM%/Battery

08:00 / 58 / 3.97
12:00 / 60 / 3.85
16:00 / 64 / 3.78
20:00 / 64 / 3.72
24:00 / 66 / 3.68
28:00 / 69 / 3.64
32:00 / 72 / 3.56 (Go4 app displayed 0% battery at this point)
38:27 / 77 / 3.40

External batteries post flight:
3.23
3.24

I am curious how this hover test compares to the dual external multistar LiHv 4000 run times. Since these units are not to be found on the planet anymore, I was searching for alternatives and curious what the experts see in this telemetry and if there are suggestions or comments.

View attachment 20504 View attachment 20505 View attachment 20506View attachment 20507

Those are pretty low values! 3.4 on main and 3.23 on ext? They dead now? Good flighttime though!
Still in Danmark, was walking past a photo store...
Made in April, i could not resist...fw .0400 my guess.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

Those are pretty low values! 3.4 on main and 3.23 on ext? They dead now? Good flighttime though!
Still in Danmark, was walking past a photo store...View attachment 20515
Made in April, i could not resist...fw .0400 my guess.

COOL!!!!!

 

[Ed209]

Hey experts,

I had a couple factory batteries separated from their housing from the tests in the factory battery mod thread and decided to make them standalone external batteries with a small soldering exercise. They are significantly lighter than the multistar LiHV 4000 units and I was curious how they would perform in a hover test. I used a factory battery as usual and the two external's using the "ear ring" power supply mod.

Factory battery pre flight:
4.35

External batteries pre flight:
4.30
4.30

Mavic Go4 Telemetry:
Minutes/RPM%/Battery

08:00 / 58 / 3.97
12:00 / 60 / 3.85
16:00 / 64 / 3.78
20:00 / 64 / 3.72
24:00 / 66 / 3.68
28:00 / 69 / 3.64
32:00 / 72 / 3.56 (Go4 app displayed 0% battery at this point)
38:27 / 77 / 3.40

External batteries post flight:
3.23
3.24

I am curious how this hover test compares to the dual external multistar LiHv 4000 run times. Since these units are not to be found on the planet anymore, I was searching for alternatives and curious what the experts see in this telemetry and if there are suggestions or comments.

View attachment 20504 View attachment 20505 View attachment 20506View attachment 20507

I did the same thing and posted results a few pages back. The DJI batteries as externals performed about the same as the MS 3.0 LiHV for me. Not good considering the DJI battery is 830mAh more ea.

Mavic Pro Battery Mod

Mavic Pro Battery Mod

 

[sprtbkrydr]

Hey experts,

I had a couple factory batteries separated from their housing from the tests in the factory battery mod thread and decided to make them standalone external batteries with a small soldering exercise. They are significantly lighter than the multistar LiHV 4000 units and I was curious how they would perform in a hover test. I used a factory battery as usual and the two external's using the "ear ring" power supply mod.

Factory battery pre flight:
4.35

External batteries pre flight:
4.30
4.30

Mavic Go4 Telemetry:
Minutes/RPM%/Battery

08:00 / 58 / 3.97
12:00 / 60 / 3.85
16:00 / 64 / 3.78
20:00 / 64 / 3.72
24:00 / 66 / 3.68
28:00 / 69 / 3.64
32:00 / 72 / 3.56 (Go4 app displayed 0% battery at this point)
38:27 / 77 / 3.40

External batteries post flight:
3.23
3.24

I am curious how this hover test compares to the dual external multistar LiHv 4000 run times. Since these units are not to be found on the planet anymore, I was searching for alternatives and curious what the experts see in this telemetry and if there are suggestions or comments.

View attachment 20504 View attachment 20505 View attachment 20506View attachment 20507

The one thing this test shows me is that your batteries are leaving a lot left in the cells at the end of flight. I just did the same test with a pair of 3000LiHV's and my post flight external batteries checked 2.73 volts


Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

 

[Ed209]

I only made it two or three runs with my 8.0HC overpacked to 4.32. but the last run in decent conditions I went 50,000 and came up 1000 feet short due to the Squirrley auto landing which ended up in a tree line. before it got uncontrollable I was on schedule to land with about 7%
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

The maiden flight with the 8.0 HC overpacked I did an easy 40,000 and returned with 22%. 8.0 flies real nice on the Mavic.
I was hoping that with changes in the assistant with the auto landing debacle that when I get it back in the air I could get back on to the distance runs, but after Maclaks recent incident I'm thinking there's no hope for distance runs with the Mavic. If you can't rely on your skills to bring it home after 10% then there's no point in trying

The way I see it, if the squirreliness isn't fixed then I treat the Mavic as a must land by 10% bird. Instead of 1%-0% being the hard bottom, it's 10%. Sure leaving some in the tank but... I flew mine to 2% in a hover and did not have any crazy flight. I wonder if you have to be at-speed or in motion?

Out of curiosity, what firmware are you running @maclak, and anyone else who has gone below 10%.


I tested below 10% on .700fw but was in a hover and it tried to autoland. I have since reverted back to .400fw because the parameter changes for safe-autoland do not stick on .700. I haven't tested with .400 yet.

 

[MacIak]

The one thing this test shows me is that your batteries are leaving a lot left in the cells at the end of flight. I just did the same test with a pair of 3000LiHV's and my post flight external batteries checked 2.73 volts


Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

You sure 2.73 and not 3.73?? @2.73 the cells should be dead!!

 

[MacIak]

The way I see it, if the squirreliness isn't fixed then I treat the Mavic as a must land by 10% bird. Instead of 1%-0% being the hard bottom, it's 10%. Sure leaving some in the tank but... I flew mine to 2% in a hover and did not have any crazy flight. I wonder if you have to be at-speed or in motion?

Out of curiosity, what firmware are you running @maclak, and anyone else who has gone below 10%.


I tested below 10% on .700fw but was in a hover and it tried to autoland. I have since reverted back to .400fw because the parameter changes for safe-autoland do not stick on .700. I haven't tested with .400 yet.

The Creep had .0200 fw.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

You sure 2.73 and not 3.73?? @2.73 the cells should be dead!!

Yep and they were dead. I ran them until the bird shut off.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

@Ed209 I am running ver .700 and it's done it with me. It also did it when I was running .900 as well.

 

[beanbubba]

so Bean, you're saying after your app hit zero you ran it for another six minutes?
how did the flight end ,just ran it till it dropped out of the sky

The battery read 0% at 32:00 and 3.56v.

At 36:49 forced landing started. Full left up stick to maintain hover. The left upstick no longer worked at 38:27 and landed itself. I have not seen my bird ever drop from the sky powerless, it always behaves similar to this.

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

 

[CyberNate]

The way I see it, if the squirreliness isn't fixed then I treat the Mavic as a must land by 10% bird. Instead of 1%-0% being the hard bottom, it's 10%. Sure leaving some in the tank but... I flew mine to 2% in a hover and did not have any crazy flight. I wonder if you have to be at-speed or in motion?

Out of curiosity, what firmware are you running @maclak, and anyone else who has gone below 10%.


I tested below 10% on .700fw but was in a hover and it tried to autoland. I have since reverted back to .400fw because the parameter changes for safe-autoland do not stick on .700. I haven't tested with .400 yet.

I flew mine this morning down to 0%. It was a little squirrelly, but was able to land control it and land. I was attempting to break the record again after flying out 57,100ft, but I couldn't make it back. Looks like I need to buy a new Mavic battery. The last 52% went down so quickly as compared to the first 48% and only got 35 minutes out of battery and 103,408ft. I was using my oldest battery that came with my very first Mavic. All of my batteries have been used hard. Unknown Caller that broke my record said he had tried many times to break it and failed. He bought a new Mavic battery and saw a huge difference, and he uses the same setup as me. He got over 40 minutes flight time on new battery with projected flight time over 43 minutes. When I set the record back in June, it was also with a new Mavic battery that only had 3 cycles. This seems to be the key, to have a brand new Mavic battery. The problem is that these distance runs where we fly the batteries down to near zero is really hard on them. You'll notice in the bottom end that the percentage drops off more quickly when it gets older, at least that's what I'm seeing.

I should add that my Multistar 4000 LiHV batteries have also taken a beating including crashes taken down to below 3V multiple times. Unfortunately there are no more of these to be had.

 

[beanbubba]

I flew mine this morning down to 0%. It was a little squirrelly, but was able to land control it and land. I was attempting to break the record again after flying out 57,100ft, but I couldn't make it back. Looks like I need to buy a new Mavic battery. The last 52% went down so quickly as compared to the first 48% and only got 35 minutes out of battery and 103,408ft. I was using my oldest battery that came with my very first Mavic. All of my batteries have been used hard. Unknown Caller that broke my record said he had tried many times to break it and failed. He bought a new Mavic battery and saw a huge difference, and he uses the same setup as me. He got over 40 minutes flight time on new battery with projected flight time over 43 minutes. When I set the record back in June, it was also with a new Mavic battery that only had 3 cycles. This seems to be the key, to have a brand new Mavic battery. The problem is that these distance runs where we fly the batteries down to near zero is really hard on them. You'll notice in the bottom end that the percentage drops off more quickly when it gets older, at least that's what I'm seeing.

I guess it's time to buy a batch of freshly minted DJI batteries

 

[sprtbkrydr]

because the parameter changes for safe-autoland do not stick on .700.

They stick with mine and I'm using .700

 

[beanbubba]

I flew mine this morning down to 0%. It was a little squirrelly, but was able to land control it and land. I was attempting to break the record again after flying out 57,100ft, but I couldn't make it back. Looks like I need to buy a new Mavic battery. The last 52% went down so quickly as compared to the first 48% and only got 35 minutes out of battery and 103,408ft. I was using my oldest battery that came with my very first Mavic. All of my batteries have been used hard. Unknown Caller that broke my record said he had tried many times to break it and failed. He bought a new Mavic battery and saw a huge difference, and he uses the same setup as me. He got over 40 minutes flight time on new battery with projected flight time over 43 minutes. When I set the record back in June, it was also with a new Mavic battery that only had 3 cycles. This seems to be the key, to have a brand new Mavic battery. The problem is that these distance runs where we fly the batteries down to near zero is really hard on them. You'll notice in the bottom end that the percentage drops off more quickly when it gets older, at least that's what I'm seeing.

I should add that my Multistar 4000 LiHV batteries have also taken a beating including crashes taken down to below 3V multiple times. Unfortunately there are no more of these to be had.

As always, thanks for sharing cybernate. I am going to try my next distance run with 3 brand new DJI batteries and see what happens. I got 38 minutes with 3 old batteries, fingers crossed.

 

[Ed209]

They stick with mine and I'm using .700

That's strange. I was on 400fw for the longest time. Then when I knew I could roll-back with a certain tool I loaded 700. When I tested it, it autolanded at 10% even though the parameters were changed. I read that some people said the parameters weren't working on 700 so went back to 400.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

That's strange. I was on 400fw for the longest time. Then when I knew I could roll-back with a certain tool I loaded 700. When I tested it, it autolanded at 10% even though the parameters were changed. I read that some people said the parameters weren't working on 700 so went back to 400.

So I finally got my drone to fly a complete battery plus external.

But it will only do one without giving me that error. It was 107 today when I started and I flew three batteries and three lihv MS 3.0's one at a time.

Basically I go in the neighborhood of 30 minutes hover and oval loops. It started to land at 3% and I couldn't stop it. In all three tests the Mavic battery shut off and the external kept the Mavic on.

I'm happy with 30 minutes. I can go a good distance in 30 minutes.

I'm going to test my -

Titan Drone Cyclone controller
Stock controller (now I have two)
Stock with 3D printed signal boosters

On the Cyclone I might try a one way flight. Just to see how far she will go.

 

[chazz]

I should add that my Multistar 4000 LiHV batteries have also taken a beating including crashes taken down to below 3V multiple times. Unfortunately there are no more of these to be had.

You could always by the 4s and chop a cell off. Very carefully of course...

 

[chazz]

I see Hobbyking is calling the MS batteries "Drone batteries" now that's new to me maybe they read this board...HEY HOBBYKING! GET THE GOOD MS LIHV's BACK! I'll take a few 6.6's, 8's 10's and 16's...I'm sure DB will double or triple my order...

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

I saw a 4.0 Lihv on there today?

 

[sprtbkrydr]

That's strange. I was on 400fw for the longest time. Then when I knew I could roll-back with a certain tool I loaded 700. When I tested it, it autolanded at 10% even though the parameters were changed. I read that some people said the parameters weren't working on 700 so went back to 400.

Now mine still tries to auto land @ 8% but the settings are staying in there. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant.